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Hey all. I miss this place, the people, enthusiasts, cars and sharing of knowledge and creativity in mods!
Anyway, I was last active 3-4yrs ago when I had (still have, kind of) an SRT stage 3 supercharged Lexus GS400 that I’ve had since 2002. She was 2yrs old when I got her. After I got her running great with my tune the only thing I wanted to do was a VB upgrade to help fix the slow and sloppy, 1-2 and 2-3 shifts. With the SC, it just wouldn’t shift fast, I would literally have to take my foot off the gas for a bit in order for it to shift good. Which loses some of the fun!
Now the bad, I got T-boned 3yrs ago while making a left out of a parking lot in a rainstorm at night down a road with no street lights. I kid you not, the girl driving an old Wrangler had no headlights on and I didn’t see her at all. The old ones don’t even have DRLs so you literally couldn’t see them coming until it was too late. I’m in NYS and a left turn is almost always deemed the fault of the person turning…so I was 80% at fault. You wouldn’t believe it but only 4mos earlier I took the collision coverage off the car because if I put 3,000 miles a year on it, that would be a lot. It’s a 3rd car for my wife and I.
Fast-forward to now and the car is literally sitting at the shop still. All fenders and doors are on (not painted though) but the B pillar on the driver side has yet to be corrected. Between Covid, an illness with the owner, losing staff (small shop to begin with), the car just sat. I was thinking of just pulling the car from them many times but they assured me they can do the job, and they have been known to do good work but it has been way past ridiculous at this point. So, because I’ve been so depressed about this, I tried filling this deep void of sadness with a new car.
I recently bought a 2019 M5 Competition. I love the car but it’s almost too pretty to drive. I don’t take it out in rainy or snowy weather, and I park at the train station everyday so I don’t bring it there either. Basically I bought this thing just to drive on the weekend and it was one of the dumbest decisions I ever made to be honest. It’s an ABSOLUTE SICK car and it is very fast. Fastest car I’ve been in to date. But, it’s complete overkill. Dyno stock at 640Whp, they are pushing over 700hp stock with an AWD drivetrain. BMW states 617hp. Lol.
Anyway, it’s overkill, massaging, heated and cooling seats, active driving assistant (almost like auto-pilot) and a plethora of other things. My point is, I know we’re all car guys but take it from me, you can have a lot of fun with ANY car…you don’t need to spend this much money to have fun. I would say I have a degree of buyers remorse but it’s still a cool car. I’ll hang onto it for a while and see how I feel about it. If the $1200/mo car payment gets old, I’ll just sell it. In the meantime I’m honestly missing my GS still. It was a fun car and I didn’t feel I had to be so careful with it all the time. If I got a slight ding on it I wouldn’t go crazy over it. But with this car, I’m a mess. I am weary of parking in many lots for fear of something happening to it, then would be that much harder to sell if not original paint etc.
I just wanted to share my story just for some insight as someone recently gone through this. I think all the time, I could’ve gotten a used Audi RS3 or M550 or even an ISF for $45K and had a lot of fun with it, while saving $35K. Be very clear on the things you want because sometimes you sign on the dotted line and you could regret it. To boot, the used car market is declining so I’m probably underwater on this thing as of now. SMH
Have a good night all, be well. I’ll try to log in more often and contribute where I can. I just need to work on getting my GS back.
Wow. That's a testament to the build quality of the GS! - That Jeep hit you square in the business are and you were alright!? Curious - did the side airbag deploy in the collision - Were you injured? God I'm sure that just made you absolutely sick to see your car damaged like that. I am glad you are able to repair it and get it back on the road. One less GS (like this) in a junk-yard is a good thing for all mankind.
I was literally depressed. I didn’t feel like it was just a car, it was a piece of me. 3+ years going by, through the summers, seeing people driving their nice cars and going to car shows was difficult. I was reduced to driving the ‘16 Sonata (my train station car) or my ‘18 Highlander, which is nice but it’s a truck. I needed to have some high HP in my life again.
Strangely enough no airbags went off! I am truly grateful as I escaped with bruising and minor cuts from the glass breaking. I hurt my neck a bit but that’s about it. It’s a great car and the reinforcements in the door are stout.
Glad you weren't hurt in that accident, good to hear you are working on getting the GS back on the road. Your GS was one I always admired and took a lot of inspiration from when modding mine. I was in a similar situation as your self after getting rid of my first GS and subsequently upgrading to much faster and more expensive cars, it just never felt right not being in a GS.
01-30-23, 08:59 PM
Haven’t been here in a VERY LONG time!
